Refreshing Makeup Trends for 2017

Trends grow, shift, and blur each year as people innovate. It means we’ve always got some new look or take on an old look to play with in our pursuit of a truly beautiful personal style. The best way to stay informed is to go to each Fashion Week that you can get to during the year to follow the media covering them. You get a clear vision of what the great designers see as the future of fashion. We’ve seen some changes to makeup trends that are going to affect the “in” look for 2017. Fashion hasn’t tired of the barely there makeup look overall, but distinctly highlighting important features appears to be where the trends are heading. Get ready for a year of bold looks paired with subtle, natural beauty. These trends are likely to at least make it to summer and perhaps beyond. After all, designers tend to have different ideas for winter than they did for spring.

Defined Lips
Makeup on the runway may have looked comparatively sparse in most cases, but the lips were an entirely different story. Several designers focused on providing eye-catching lips that stood out from the rest of the face. The trend doesn’t focus on any true hues either. Some designers favored brighter shades while others stuck to dramatic, dark shades. They key is the sheer depth and intensity of the colors being used. Most of the fashion models adopting this look had comparatively tame makeup beyond that. It continued the trend of a “natural” look with the one major exception being the lips. Notably, some of the favored lipstick shades did include subtle glitter to add to the look. This is a continuation of a 2016 trend, but the sheer power of the colors involved helps to set it apart from the lighter look of 2016. This wasn’t the only evidence of a modified trend to make it to the runway though.

Enhanced Cat Eyes
The cat eye never leaves fashion. It is one of those eternal makeup tricks that help to ensure you have eyes that stand out above the rest. The problem most designers have with truly embracing it is that the cat eye is frequently quite static as far as looks go. People seldom innovate on it. This year was a little different though as some designers fully embraced the cat eye. 2017’s cat eyes are looking like they’ll shape up to be thicker and bolder than average with a subtle use of color. One designer in particular favored darker colored eyeliner to maintain the emphasis of the look while adding a new twist. They key to the look is ensuring that the upper and lower lines are both thick and continue up slightly farther while maintaining the thickness in a slightly exaggerated flick. This look, much like with the lips, was the sole deviation from an otherwise “no makeup” look.

The Eyes Have It
While the boosted cat eye was common on the runway, the overall theme seemed to suggest that designers are favoring emphasizing the eyes in 2017. This frequently involved using highly distinct shadow to properly draw attention to the eyes. Interestingly enough, one designers actually had makeup artists do a rectangle of pure color over the eyes of models. The color favored appeared to be on to help ensure a bold statement with a clear and bright color. It seems like this look was a bit geometric for the tastes of some designers though. Others instead opted for a similar, thick area of color over the eye, but favored broad strokes of color starting at the inner eye and going outward while maintaining thickness. This look also embraced bold colors to draw the eye instantly to the area. In keeping with the theme, the bold look often meant the rest of the face was more or less untouched to the untrained eye.

Makeup in 2017 appears to be leaning heavily on providing clear emphasis rather than being perfectly subtle as the trend has been in 2016. Overall, the “no makeup” look is still holding a great sway over the fashion world and is a good way to help all of us embrace our own beauty. The rebellion from the trend is simply in providing stark emphasis to the lips or the eyes for that extra bit of glamour. This leaves a lot of room for experimenting for beauty gurus and personal experimenters alike.